An Officer And A Gentleman (1982) ****

OK, I know I tend to be anti-chick flick. Most of them are repetitive pieces of garbage that bank on a hot male star to hold up a pathetic script. For years I've though that An Officer and a Gentleman was the king of chick flicks. All we've seen is that last scene with Richard Gere carrying Debra Winger out of her factory job in his military dress. It feels like pure chick flick. But it turns out to be much more than that.

The film follows Zack Mayo (Richard Gere), a recent college grad who shocks his boozing and whoring father by declaring that he had joined the Navy to learn to fly jets. Mayo ends up being under the thumb of Gunnery Sergeant Foley (Louis Gossett, Jr.) while entering into a romance with local factory worker Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger).

The film folows the ups and downs of this group of officer wannabes. You see their pain. Gere's character may seem confident, but he realizes he's landed in his last chance. You see the hell and the happiness when he's with Paula. It's sort of a ying yang portrayal between the cold as ice trainee and the lover. Gere pulls it off, as does Winger. Winger's character is almost like a lost soul who knows that the operating procedure in her town is to trap and officer and see the world, yet she knows that she actually wants to love whoever her mate is supposed to be.

The key performance is Louis Gossett, Jr. His portrayal of Sgt. Foley is a masterpiece and sets the standard for all other Sergeants (sans real drill instructor R. Lee Ermey) that followed him. He's a prick, but there are a few cracks in that armor. Just a few and they don't show very often as they're almost felt like a ghostly presence. A great performance that deserved the Oscar he won.

After seeing An Officer and a Gentleman I almost have to call it Full Metal Jacket Light. Instead of being a romance, which seems to be a secondary plot point, it's more of an examination of the human spirit being twisted and distorted by forces all around the characters. Like I said it may be a chick flick, but it's a good chick flick.